^EUNIVERS/A       jA;\0S-AHGH% 


by 

J-NQ6-RSOI.I. 


•  •.••-•.••V- 


PHILADELPHIA: 

KING  &  BAIRD,  PRINTERS,  607  SANSOM  STREET. 
1861. 


E 
if  57 


SECESSION: 

A.    FOLLY    A.ND    .A.    CHIME. 


THE  present  moment  is  full  of  omen  and  exciting 
interest.  None  so  critical  has  occurred  in  the  event- 
ful history  of  the  country.  It  invites  the  earnest 
reflection  of  every  citizen.  Experience  furnishes  no 
guide  for  action,  and  the  soundest  judgment,  left  to 
its  own  unassisted  strength,  can  scarcely  be  relied 
on.  Impulses  of  an  enlarged  patriotism  must  be 
earnestly  invoked,  and  they  may  with  the  best  .assur- 
ance be  trusted  for  a  rule  of  conduct.  With  a  view 
to  present  movements  and  future  consequences,  let 
these  supply  the  want  of  experience,  and  aid  the 
honest  efforts  of  judgment.  No  theme  can  be  so 
important  for  discussion,  or  so  well  adapted  to  meet 
the  current  of  universal  thought  and  duty,  as  that 
which  treats  of  the  divided,  disturbed  and  distracted 
condition  of  the  country.  If  a  ray  of  light  can  be 
shed  upon  the  surrounding  darkness  ;  if  sentiment  in 
itself  perfectly  pure,  yet  unfixed  in  precise  conclu- 
sions, can  be  led  to  united  and  definite  purposes ;  if 


P34822 
302569 


4  SECESSION  :   A  FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

tendencies  towards  seemingly  minor  differences  of 
opinion  on  collateral  points  involved  in  the  general 
issue,  can  be  restrained,  and  all  diversity  can  be  cen- 
tered in  one  universal  test  of  concurring  wisdom,  in 
which  heart  and  mind,  and  hand,  shall  join  their 
several  powers  for  the  common  good,  the  triumph  of 
principle,  and  the  success  of  necessary  conflict  will  be 
secured  together. 

One  great  object  absorbs  the  public  mind.  It  is 
the  novel  state  of  the  Nation.  All  are  alive  to  it, 
and  the  degree  of  individual  excitement  depends 
only  on  the  greater  or  less  extent  of  personal  liability 
to  agitation.  It  has  been  familiarly  said  that  no  one 
could  think  out  of  Shakspeare.  It  would  puzzle 
anybody  to  think  of  anything  but  rebellion.  The 
thoughts  with  unvarying  devotion,  are  led  merely  to 
the  variety  which  prompts  at  once,  or  in  rapid  suc- 
cession, to  lament  or  to  condemn  on  the  one  side, 
and  to  encourage,  to  justify,  and  to  serve  on  the 
other.  These  are  the  necessary  tendencies  and  espe- 
cial duties  of  the  hour. 

There  has  rarely  existed  a  great  subject  of  interest, 
in  the  minor  details  and  incidents,  of  which  there 
were  not  differences  of  opinion,  and  each  side  sus- 
tained by  positive  conviction  of  right.  I  cannot 
suppose  that  there  are  not  many  of  the  rankest 
secessionists  who  have  brought  themselves  to  believe 
that  their  cause  deserves  to  be  sustained.  A  phrenzy 
of  delirium  is  not  necessary  to  make  the  worse 


SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME.  5 

appear  the  better  reason.  Infatuation  produces  a 
like  result  in  a  subject  not  otherwise  unsound.  In- 
terest is  often  an  ingredient  of  conviction,  prejudice 
forestals  reflection,  companionship  influences  opinion, 
pride  and  passion  are  more  powerful  persuasives 
than  reason  and  good  sense.  Looking  at  moral 
objects  with  the  mind's  eye,  is  like  looking  at  natural 
objects  with  bodily  vision.  The  sight  of  each  is 
commonly  true,  yet  in  either  it  may  be  distorted,  by 
false  medium,  prejudice,  or  rage.  Circumstances  not 
always  to  be  explained,  give  color,  shape,  dimensions, 
merit  and  defects  of  their  own,  either  without  any 
actual  existence,  or  so  exaggerated  as  to  assume 
appearances  perhaps  the  opposite  of  truth.  Yet  the 
truth  remains  in  the  centre,  and  cannot  be  changed. 
Religious  antagonism  at  certain  periods,  has  been  the 
most  bitter  of  all,  for  conscience,  even  more  than 
judgment,  has  been  sometimes  a  false  guide,  and 
martyrdom  has  been  accepted,  in  preference  to  con- 
cession, even  of  abstract  and  perhaps  immaterial 
opinion.  In  the  barbarous  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  of 
England,  whose  tyranny  was  not  surpassed  by  that  of 
Nero  or  Caligula,  massacres  for  mere  opinion  were 
numerous.  No  less  than  nineteen  Anabaptists  for 
example,  born  in  Holland,  were  examined  at  one 
time  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  London,  and  condemned 
to  be  burned  alive,  for  believing,  among  other  things, 
that  children  born  of  infidels  might  be  saved. 

Religious  fury  of  a  former  time  and  in  another 


P34822 


6  SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME. 

sphere,  has  given  way  to  political  violence,  not  less 
ferocious,  among  ourselves.  We  have  seen,  that  in 
certain  portions  of  our  own  country,  opinions,  or  the 
bare  suspicions  of  them,  at  variance  with  those  of  the 
special  latitude,  have  subjected  the  holders  of  them 
to  cruelties  of  every  sort,  and  even  to  ignominious 
and  painful  death.  Martyrdom,  it  seems,  must  have 
its  victims,  even  without  the  excuse  of  conscience  or 
a  holy  cause. 

These  and  other  fearful  atrocities  had  long  been  in 
practice  sanctioned  and  approved  by  eminent  leaders. 
They  were  demonstrations  of  hatred  towards  the 
Northern  portion  of  the  country,  still  held  in  a  spirit 
of  hollow  alliance,  which  had  succeeded  to  what  had 
become  at  last  a  nominal  Union.  They  broke  forth 
at  length  into  active  organized  and  authoritative 
hostility.  Secession  was  proclaimed  as  the  great  end 
and  aim.  It  neither  felt  nor  fancied  complaint  or 
grievance  from  the  general  government,  nor  did  it 
suggest  a  desire  for  relief  from  definite,  imaginary 
wrongs.  It  was  a  spontaneous  combustion.  It  ex- 
ploded at  its  own  selected  time,  in  its  own  unpre- 
cedented manner,  under  its  own  self-created  circum- 
stances, and  with  its  own  mad  exploits  offensively 
and  angrily  resorted  to.  Had  it  been  limited  to 
mere  secession  it  might  have  been  patiently  endured, 
however  unjustifiable  by  constitutional  law  or  natural 
reason.  No  threat  of  coercion  was  ever  made  or 
uttered  against  it.  Any  such  design  was  instantly 


SECESSION  :    A   FOLLY  AND   A   CRIME.  7 

disavowed  by  the  still  existing  head  of  the  govern- 
ment. All  that  has  ever  been  pretended  to  as  a 
rebel  right  might  have  been  indulged  with  impunity 
from  all,  and  from  many  who  would  not  weep  for  the 
separation,  with  welcome.  A  compliment  so  much 
desired  and  expected,  was  never  paid  in  thought  or 
action.  Had  rebellion  confined  itself  to  mere  seces- 
sion, it  could  have  been  accomplished  without  a 
struggle  or  an  obstacle,  the  perpetrators  would  have 
been  simply  delivered  over  to  be  buifeted  of  Satan  in 
the  fulness  of  their  own  sins.  They  were  too  veno- 
mous to  be  pitied,  and  too  violent  and  mischievous 
to  be  despised. 

Yet  the  right  of  dissolving  the  Union  is  totally 
denied  to  individual  States.  The  continuance  of  it 
was  pledged  as  a  cardinal  ingredient  from  the  begin- 
ning to  be  perpetual.  Bad  taste  and  bad  principle 
were  evident  in  the  secession  proceedings,  as  well  as 
bad  feeling.  They  are  unequivocally  condemned 
A  regret  too,  that  they  should,  under  any  circum- 
stances, have  been  resorted  to,  from  whatever  pretext, 
is  for  the  most  part  felt.  '  The  actors  in  them  were 
probably  quite  surprised  that  such  should  be  the 
case.  They  expected  measures  of  coercion,  and  they 
met  at  first  sorrow  rather  than  anger.  They  seemed 
to  desire  war,  for  which  they  had  long  been  pre- 
paring. Arms  and  men,  they  had  been  singing  like 
the  Roman  poet  during  several  years.  Great  must 
have  been  the  disappointment  that  rebellion  did  not 


8  SECESSION:   A  FOLLY   AND  A   CHIME. 

at  once  call  them  into  active  use.  Secession,  how- 
ever, in  itself,  was  not  then,  and  is  not  now  with  us, 
the  principal  point.  The  act  itself  was  simply 
unopposed.  It  was  endured  with  a  patience  that 
lulled  the  perpetrators  of  it  into  fatal  error.  It  gave 
encouragement  to  acts  worse  than  itself.  They  who 
chose  to  do  the  deed,  and  have  executed  it  as  they 
believe  effectually,  will  one  day  lament  their  folly,  if 
not  their  guilt.  If  they  have  any  of  the  usual  feel- 
ings of  a  people  wrhich  they  now  claim  to  be  con- 
sidered, they  will  feel  keenly  the  loss  of  what  they 
have  thrown  away.  A  common  fame  derived  from 
the  glorious  deeds  of  a  common  and  illustrious 
ancestry,  in  what  was  supposed  to  be  a  common 
cause,  has  heretofore  been  enjoyed  by  them  as  a  rich 
inheritance.  This  they  have  forfeited.  They  have 
now  nothing  in  history,  and  little  in  prospect,  to  claim 
as  their  own.  All  is  obscure  in  the  past,  as  well  as 
dark  and  dreary  in  the  future.  A  country  vast  in 
geographical  extent,  limited  only  by  oceans  and 
inland  seas,  and  combining  everything  to  minister  to 
the  enjoyment  of  its  inhabitants,  was  theirs.  They 
shared  all  the  advantages  of  the  States  which  were 
separated  in  position,  but  closely  connected  by  mu- 
tual interests  and  every  description  of  domestic  tie. 
They  shared,  and  more  than  shared,  in  the  benefits 
of  the  Union.  A  large  excess  of  representation  for 
actual  citizenship,  was  secured  to  them  by  the  con- 
stitution in  the  National  council.  The  manufactures 


SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AXD  A  CRIME.  9 

of  the  North  were  received  at  little  cost,  without 
withdrawing  local  labor  from  its  especial  objects. 
Visits  of  health  and  recreation  were  made  at  all 
seasons,  and  particularly  when  a  Southern  climate 
rendered  absence  indispensable  to  many;  and  not 
only  did  watering  places  become  occupied  by  them 
as  friends,  but  hospitable  doors  were  everywhere 
thrown  open  to  them. 

Besides  the  many  personal  advantages  liberally 
enjoyed  at  all  times,  the  South  occasionally  reaped 
harvests  of  political  triumph.  In  various  agitated 
questions,  where  differences  of  interest  were  found  or 
fancied,  and  differences  of  sentiment,  which  are  no  less 
captivating,  were  certainly  felt,  the  North  gracefully 
yielded  their  wishes,  if  not  their  rights.  It  was  one 
of  the  happy  effects  of  the  Union,  that  a  majority  in 
numbers,  in  wealth,  in  cultivation,  in  seminaries  of 
learning,  to  say  nothing  of  the  possession  of  a  better 
climate,  and  the  production  of  almost  everything  for 
the  support  and  comfort  of  human  life  and  the  pre- 
servation of  social  intercourse,  should  concede  so 
much  and  so  often  to  the  wishes  of  a  somewhat 
capricious  and  always  fastidious  brotherhood.  It 
was  all  in  vain.  Gratitude  is  always  a  rare  virtue. 
Benefits  are  often  felt  like  coals  of  fire  upon  the  head 
of  pride.  A  long-cherished  indulgence  of  resentment 
towards  the  whole  Northern  States  and  people,  for 
supposed  injuries  offered  by  a  few,  and  a  desire 
perhaps  to  quarrel  with  over  pacific  neighbors,  reluc- 


10  SECESSION  :   A  FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

tant  to  the  onset,  at  length  found  vent.     The  feeling, 
if  not  innate,  as  it  should  rather  seem  to  have  been, 
had  at  least  been  fostered  so  long  that  it  was  adopted 
as  if  natural,  broke  forth  into  open  and  avowed  rebel- 
lion,   and   fierce   and   uncompromising   war.      Here 
too,  the  South  has  gained  the  beginning  of  a  gloomy 
end.     Upon  her  the  responsibility  rests.     Like  her 
overtures  in  peaceful  times,  for  good  or  evil,  the  gage 
of  battle  has  been  accepted.     There  too,  the  North, 
with  a  reluctant  but  not  unbecoming  assent,  and  now 
general  cordial  concurrence,  has  at  last  acquiesced ; 
and  the  result  is,  not  fair  and  civilized  conflict  on 
both   sides,  but   on   the   one,  resort   to   piracy  and 
bloody  ingratitude. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  detect  a  reasonable  motive 
for  such  acts  of  passion,  which  are  not,  as  is   usual 
with  so  unreflecting  a  prompter,  blindly,  impetuous 
and  rash.     These  men  pride  themselves  upon  their 
rashness.  The  long,  lingering  pretext  of  Northern  abo- 
litionism was  too  narrow  in  its  scope,  and  too  limited 
and  individual  even  in  its  region  of  local  allegation, 
to  hold  much  longer.     A  better  plea  is  unkenneled 
in   the   correspondence   of  a   British  reporter,   who 
seems  to  have  been  greeted  with  open  arms,  notwith- 
standing long  indulged   reproaches   of  the   peculiar 
Institution.      That   State   which   first   unfurled   the 
banner  of  secession,  which  brought  her  ten  thousand 
to  the  conflict  with  the  tens  of  Fort  Sumter,  which 
set  the  fatal  example  to  the  less  irritated  rest,  has  told 


SECESSION  :   A   FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME.  11 

her  secret  to  the  emissary  of  a  foreign  press.  Ten 
years  ago  she  proclaimed  in  a  Nashville  Convention 
her  desires  for  separation  but  not  the  cause.  A 
speech  from  Langdon  Cheves,  who  had  formerly  re- 
moved from  South  Carolina  to  Philadelphia,  and  was 
at  one  time  President  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  (hardly  a  secession  corporation),  declared  that 
the  lead  of  Virginia  alone  was  wanting  then.  The 
old  dominion  herself,  in  broken  integrity  is  now  led, 
and  the  lesson  is  taught  by  a  younger  sister,  who 
affects  to  assume  and  justify  the  responsibility.  A 
lesson  is  learned,  and  its  teachings  adopted,  which 
might  call  down  the  protesting  shades  of  Washington 
and  Henry,  of  Marshall  and  Jefferson  to  save  from 
this  double  reproach,  a  perverted  posterity.  The 
form  of  a  Republic  is  acknowledged  by  their  teachers 
to  have  been  among  them  an  imposition.  A  high- 
toned  monarchy  is  the  now  developed  hope.  Do  the 
other  republican  forms  of  government,  solemnly 
guaranteed  by  the  Constitution,  following  as  they 
have  done  the  inglorious  lead  of  lineal  successions, 
adopt  the  motive,  and  avow  the  royal  desire  and 
tendency  1  Will  they  each  seek  a  foreign  prince  to 
reign  over  them  in  the  pride  of  distinct  and  disunited 
despotism  1  Or  will  they,  one  and  all  together, 
banded  in  a  holy  alliance  of  confederate  treason  and 
disloyalty,  bow  down  before  a  single  domestic  or 
foreign  throne "? 

It  was  to  be  looked  for  under  such  an  impulse  that 


12  SECESSION  :   A  FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

the  means  adopted  should  be  of  a  corresponding  kind. 
Despotism  is  grasping  in  its  character.  Tyranny 
and  oppression,  lawless  usurpation  and  selfish  seizure 
of  what  rightfully  belonged  to  others,  without  con- 
sent or  compensation,  equivalent  or  return,  have 
marked  the  course  of  secession,  as  they  are  said  to 
do  of  unlimited,  arbitrary  government.  It  is  not  of 
the  bare  secession  that  we  complain.  Bad  as  it  is, 
unlawful  and  unwise,  it  is  their  own  aifair,  while  it  is 
without  incident  or  addition.  Let  them  go  in  the 
name  of  the  Prince  of  Darkness  and  worship  him  if 
they  will.  The  essence  of  our  complaint  consists  not 
of  the  mere  withdrawal,  by  whatever  name.  They 
have  done  much  more.  In  this,  which  is  over  and 
above,  naked  secession,  we  have  only  too  much  con- 
cern. It  is  in  what  they  have  said  and  done  besides, 
that  we  are  grieved.  Our  solemn  protest  is  the  result 
of  positive  wrong.  They  have  not  thought  of  the 
rights  of  others  in  asserting  what  are  alleged  to  be 
their  own.  But  claiming  only  the  right  to  secede, 
they  have  boldly,  yet  cunningly,  expanded  their  de- 
parture into  a  hardy  seizure  of  property  ;  and  with 
equal  hardihood,  they  demand  from  us  at  the  can- 
non's mouth,  acknowledgment  of  their  existence  as 
an  independent  nation.  We  condemn  the  acts  .with 
which  the  separation  has  been  accompanied  and 
matured,  their  reckless  violence  and  unquestioned 
wrong,  and  we  assert  in  them  over  and  above  seces- 
sion that  there  has  been  positive  injury  done  to  our- 


SECESSION  :   A   FOLLY   AND   A   CRIME.  13 

selves.  If  they  must  go,  why  not  go  in  peace,  and 
without  committing  personal  as  well  as  political 
crime  1  Some  of  their  leaders  have  declared  that 
they  ought  not  to  have  declared  war.  It  did  not 
matter  much.  The  blow  in  reality  came  before  the 
word,  and  the  blows  have  been  made  signal  without 
a  word  to  this  hour,,  in  defence  of  their  extremity. 

Property  of  every  description  was  seized  and  is 
withheld  by  force  and  fraud.  Money  and  goods,  forts 
and  arsenals,  debts  and  claims,  mints  and  their  con- 
tents, rights,  some  of  which  might  have  been  regarded 
perhaps  as  held  in  common,  and  rights  exclusively 
belonging  to  the  general  government.  All  have  been 
taken  alike,  violently  and,  without  applying  the  term 
with  undue  severity,  or  in  any  but  its  technical  sense, 
feloniously ;  and  they  are  held  without  any  expla- 
nation offered  or  pretended  to  on  this  point,  in  de- 
fiance of  every  principle  of  law,  human  and  divine. 
One  or  more  States  have  repudiated  in  their  sovereign 
capacity.  They  have  refused  payment  of  interest  on 
their  bonds  in  which  citizens  of  other  States  had 
made  investments  in  an  evil  hour  of  unsuspecting 
confidence.  Modern  usage,  it  is  believed,  is  for  this 
without  a  precedent,  in  time  of  however  flagrant  war. 
Private  debts  have  been  ordered  to  be  withheld  from 
payment  to  the  rightful  creditor,  and  are  directed  to 
be  paid  into  the  State  Treasury,  there  to  abide  the 
issue  of  the  contest  and  the  possibility  of  redemption. 

These  facts  have  made  the  great  issue  between  the 


14  SECESSION  :   A  FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

North  and  the  South,  and  the  latter  seems  altogether 
willing  to  overlook  any  such  facts  and  issue.  The 
former  does  not  consent  to  be  robbed,  and  tamely 
submit  to  the  loss,  arid  then  have  farther  concessions 
required.  This  is  in  a  word,  our  side  of  the  question. 
The  South  holds  to  its  illegal  gains  without  an  offer 
to  restore,  or  to  submit  the  point  to  an  umpire,  or  to 
reason  upon  the  pretext  of  all  this  wrong.  That 
is  their  side  of  the  question.  They  avoid  the  point 
solely  cared  for  by  the  North,  and  ask  in  effect  that 
it  should  be  waived,  and  that  every  thing  else  should 
be  tamely  surrendered.  Avoiding  unnecessary  harsh- 
ness of  language,  and  even  the  use  of  appropriate 
epithets  in  their  extent  and  fulness,  we  present  this 
as  the  real  state  of  the  issue  between  us,  a  difference 
of  moral  as  much  as  political  law.  With  all  in  their 
hands  that  they  could  contrive  to  take  by  force,  they 
ask  more,  as  if  there  were  only  one  party  to  (he 
bargain.  As  things  stand,  this  would  be  to  acknow- 
ledge robbery  to  be  right  and  to  abandon  a  sacred 
trust  committed  to  the  government  as  guardian  of  the 
nation.  As  things  now  stand,  their  daring  demand 
of  unconditional  recognition  is  a  mere  insult,  an  in- 
dignity that  is  often  worse  than  an  injury — a  thing 
that  could  not  be  listened  to  without  loss  of  self  re- 
spect. With  hands  polluted  *by  spoils,  with  such 
wrongs  done  and  unatoned  by  word  or  deed,  they 
desire  that  we  shall  change  them  from  individuals 
who  have  souls  to  perish,  into  corporations  that  have 


SECESSION  I   A  FOLLY  AND  A  CEIME.  15 

no  moral  or  spiritual  responsibility.  They  do  more, 
they  ask  us  and  pretend  to  expect  us  to  receive  them 
as  a  power  fit  to  govern  in  itself,  and  to  stand  upon 
the  elevated  ground  of  equality  with  a  fraternity  of 
honorable  nations.  The  first  step  after  committing 
wrong,  should  be  repentance.  The  next,  that  re- 
pentance should  be  made  practical,  by  a  return  of 
things  wrongfully  taken.  Not  a  step  is  taken  towards 
being  in  statu  quo.  No  offer  to  give  up  in  part  or  in 
whole,  even  no  mediation  of  this  point  of  right  or 
wrong,  or  a  thought  that  such  a  point  exists.  Like 
veteran  depredators,  delighted  or  at  least  satisfied 
with  their  unlawful  trade,  they  stand  up  in  boldest 
confidence,  and  demand  like  the  professional  high- 
waymen, delivery  with  a  pistol  at  the  breast  of  the 
traveller.  They  have  been  used  to  submission  from 
the  North.  The  triumphs  over  the  Missouri  compro- 
mise, and  the  different  concessions  of  1850,  must  be 
re-enacted  into  a  new  chapter  of  mistaken  delicacy 
and  forbearance  on  the  one  side  and  proud  assumption 
on  the  other.  No !  no  !  The  pitcher  has  gone  to  the 
well  too  often,  and  it  is  at  length  broken.  The 
North,  after  a  patient  and  somewhat  ignoble  slumber 
of  years,  has  at  length  awakened  to  a  sense  of  self- 
respect,  and  its  thousands  and  tens  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  patriots  devoted  to  the  Union  and  the 
Constitution,  animated  by  one  feeling  of  disdainful 
readiness,  are  rallying  to  the  rescue. 

If  the  past  has  been  marked  with  acts  of  violence, 


16  SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME. 

still  greater  efforts  of  rage  are  denounced  in  un- 
measured terms  for  the  coming  hour.  These  denun- 
ciations are  not  the  utterance  of  mere  humble 
apprentices  in  the  new  trade  of  secession.  They  are 
heard  in  tones  of  thunder  from  master  workmen  in 
rebellion,  from  the  heads  of  separate  conspiracies. 
Governers  and  ex-Governers — each  in  his  different 
phrase,  but  each  in  a  spirit  not  to  be  mistaken,  vie 
with  one  another  in  the  assault.  It  is  now  not 
against  individual,  but  a  people,  not  the  angry  tone 
of  intended  separation  but  the  carnal-minded  display 
of  the  unsheathed  dagger. 

We  have  read  in  fiction  of  attempts  to  urge  the 
confederates  of  treason  to  dye  their  hands  deep  in  the 
blood  of  their  promised  victims.  Such  is  the  urgency 
of  the  basest  of  the  band  represented  by  the  poet 
Otway  in  the  conclave  of  a  Venetian  conspiracy.  Be 
sure,  says  this  desperado,  that  you  shed  blood  enough. 
Seldom,  until  now,  have  the  countersign  and  the 
watch-word  of  civil  war  in  actual  life,  been  inscribed 
in  crimson.  Civilized  nations  have  carried  on  war  in 
the  hope  indeed  of  conquest,  but  without  unnecessary 
effusion  of  human  blood.  Here,  the  red  flag  of  piracy 
is  unfurled  and  its  every  fold  floats  to  the  breeze  in 
warning  or  alarm  for  all  who  by  the  chance  of  war 
may  fall  into  the  hands  of  this  new-fashioned  foe. 
Coming  from  sources  of  clear  authority  we  are  not  at 
liberty  to  doubt  the  genuineness  of  these  threats,  or 
the  entire  cordiality  with  which  they  will  be  executed 


SECESSION:   A   FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME.  17 

A  public  meeting  was  addressed  by  the  so-styled 
President  of  the  New  Confederacy,  and  in  his  pre- 
sence by  an  ex-governor  of  one  of  our  neighboring 
States.  These  are  necessarily  to  be  received  as 
official  declarations,  in  the  absence  of  all  others,  both 
of  the  war  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  be  car- 
ried on.  The  speeches  have  been  published  every- 
where in  all  their  horrors.  They  are  not  private 
and  individual  remarks,  but  public  documents,  in- 
tended, no  doubt,  and  certainly  calculated  to  have 
due  influence  in  inspiring  followers  with  like  deter- 
mination, and  in  warning  opponents  against  the 
wrath  to  come.  A  crowded  audience  is  told,  "  You 
want  war,  fire,  blood,  to  purify  you ;  and  the  Lord  of 
hosts  has  demanded  that  you  should  walk  through 
fire  and  blood.  You  are  called  to  the  fiery  baptism. 
*  *  Though  your  pathway  be  through  fire  or 
through  a  river  of  blood,  turn  not  aside."  Then  after 
being  told  to  "  take  a  lesson  from  John  Brown,"  who 
became  a  Southern  example,  they  are  informed,  "your 
true-blooded  Yankee  will  never  stand  still  in  the  face 
of  cold  steel."  It  was  a  like  spirit  which  proposed 
in  the  name  of  God  and  nature,  in  the  British  House 
of  Lords,  to  employ  the  savage  Indians  against  our 
fathers,  and  called  forth  the  rebuke  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham's eloquence.  That  early  friend  of  our  infant 
country,  denounced  the  idea  of  enlisting  against  their 
brethren  of  America,  the  cannibal  savage,  thirsting 
for  blood.  He  could  not  tell  what  ideas  of  God  and 


18  SECESSION  :   A  FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

nature  the  noble  lord  entertained,  but  this  he  knew, 
that  such  principles  were  equally  abhorrent  to  religion 
and  humanity.     We  are  told,  too,  for  the  first  time, 
that  our  eastern  brethren  are  cowards !  that  they  will 
not  stand  still  in  the  face  of  cold  steel.    This  reproach 
alone  was  wanting  to  rouse  their  indignant  energies 
and  doubly  stimulate  them  to  the  encounter.     One 
of  the  most  estimable  officers  of  the  war  of  Ibl2, 
himself  a  South  Carolinian,  who  left  that  State,  it  is 
believed,  because  of  its  disunion  sentiments,  Colonel 
Dray  ton,  declared  that  the  best  soldiers  of  that  war 
were  the  northern  men.     Is  the  17th  of  June,  '75, 
the  day  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  forgotten  I    Or 
is  it  supposed  that  the  men  of  that  day  have  degene- 
rated ?     When  General  Gage,  through  his  telescope, 
discerned  the  manly  figure  of  Colonel  Prescott  walk- 
ing the  parapet,  and  encouraging  his  men,  he  asked 
quickly,   "Will   he   fight  1"      "Yes,   sir,"    was   the 
answer,  of  one  who  knew  him,  "  to  the  last  drop  of 
blood."     When  the  scanty  stock  of  American  arms, 
which  had  done  its  fearful  execution,  was  exhausted, 
and  it  was  necessary  to  retire  slowly,  Colonel  Prescott 
was  one  of  the  last  to  leave   the  redoubt,  parrying 
with  his  sword,  bayonets  which  had  pierced  his  cloth- 
ing, like  a  true-blooded  Yankee,  fearless  of  "  the  face 
of  cold  steel." 

Whenever  the  country  has  required  the  best  com- 
bination of  skill  and  courage,  it  has  been  found  in  the 
Eastern  soldier.  Greene  was  the  selected  and  ap- 


SECESSION:   A   FOLLY   AND   A    CKIME.  19 

proved  reliance  of  Washington.  A  braver  or  a  better 
general  did  not  grace  the  annals  of  the  revolution  on 
land.  In  the  war  of  1812,  the  water  too  was  witness 
to  the  merits  of  the  Yankee,  on  the  ocean  and  the 
lakes.  Hull  and  Morris,  in  the  Constitution,  after 
out-manoeuvring  a  whole  squadron  of  enemies,  dis- 
played successful  vak>r  in  the  earliest  of  a  line  of 
naval  victories  which  astonished  the  civilized  world. 
It  was  the  utterance  of  a  fervent  wish  of  the  great 
chieftain  of  England,  the  conqueror  of  Waterloo,  that 
"  they  could  take  one  of  those  damned  (American) 
frigates."  An  Eastern  youth,  too,  reported  his  victory 
over  a  British  squadron,  in  terms  almost  as  concise  as 
those  which  have  contributed  to  immortalize  Julius 
Ca3sar,  "  We  have  met  the  enemy,"  was  the  despatch 
of  Perry,  "  and  they  are  ours." 

These  are  signal  instances  of  thousands  of  disproofs 
of  the  reproach  of  a  Confederate  ex-governor,  of  Yan- 
kee mettle ;  and  the  proclamation  of  a  Confederate 
General  is  scarcely  less  extraordinary.  It  announces 
that  a  reckless  and  unprincipled  tyrant  has  invaded 
the  soil,  and  has  thrown  in  his  Abolition  hosts,  who 
are  murdering  and  imprisoning  citizens  *  *  and 
committing  other  acts  of  violence  and  outrage  too 
shocking  and  revolting  to  humanity  to  be  enumerated, 
Their  war-cry  is  declared  to  be  beauty  and  booty — 
and  all  that  is  dear  to  men,  their  honor  and  that  of 
their  wives  and  daughters,  their  fortunes  and  their 
lives,  are  said  to  be  involved  in  the  momentous  con- 


20  SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME. 

test !  This  specimen  of  military  rhetoric  is  here 
recorded  for  consideration.  It  has  been  contrasted 
with  the  dignified  sobriety  of  tone  of  proclamations  of 
military  commanders,  on  the  Union  side.  The  hope 
has  been  expressed  that  it  is  not  genuine,  but  has 
been  foisted  upon  the  public  by  some  enemy  of  the 
officer  whose  name  is  subscribed. 

These  bloody  threats  from  the  South  have  been 
alluded  to,  not  for  the  purpose  of  creating  uneasi- 
ness or  alarm.  Such  an  effect  would  be  ill-adapted 
to  the  principles  and  practice  of  those  against  whom 
they  are  uttered.  Much  less  under  the  belief  that 
there  are  dormant  energies  to  be  aroused  which  in 
the  day  of  trial  seldom  slumber.  Let  it  be  com- 
mended to  the  notice  of  all,  not  for  the  purpose  of 
exciting  a  counteracting  spirit,  which  in  a  Christian 
latitude  could  not  exist,  much  less  to  echo  the  vain 
threats  of  what  could  find  no  trembling  heart  or  ear. 
It  is  intended  only  to  show  the  character  of  the  war 
waged  against  us.  It  discards  the  established  princi- 
ples of  civilized  hostility  which  teach  forbearance 
from  savage  cruelty,  and  the  exercise  of  force  only  as 
the  necessary  means  of  honorable  conquest,  in  the 
full  practice  of  Christian  humanity.  If  the  difference 
between  us  is  to  be  this,  let  heaven  and  earth  look 
upon  the  contest  as  it  deserves,  and  let  its  conduct  at 
least  be  handed  down  to  a  discriminating  posterity, 
for  approval  or  for  frowning  condemnation.  Enough 
perhaps  has  appeared  already  to  show  that  the  an- 


SECESSION  :   A   FOLLY   AND   A  CRIME.  21 

nouncements  under  the  red  flag  of  Barbary  are  not  a 
mere  theory.  Inhumanity  has  already  marked  the 
progress  of  the  Southern  war,  and  it  will  show  its 
hideous  front  again  when  it  can  do  so  with  safety 
under  such  fatal  influences.  When  the  contest  was 
over  at  Great  Bethel,  and  the  humane  survivors  of 
the  gallant  Greble  were  removing  the  wounded  and 
dead  from  the  spot  where  they  had  fallen,  they  were 
fired  upon  and  murdered  by  the  garrison  that  had 
been  saved  probably  by  the  alleged  mistake  of  an 
inexperienced  Federal  commander.  Let  these  be  les- 
sons of  the  tender  mercies  of  the  leaders  and  their  (it 
may  be  reluctant)  followers  of  a  great  section  of  a 
common  country,  with  which  we  have  been  drawn 
not  willingly  at  first  into  a  fraternal  war.  Not  even 
a  choice  of  suffering  is  left  to  prisoners  and  wounded 
men.  Not  a  hope  or  chance  of  alleviation  is  held 
out,  and  the  worst  forms  of  fatal  infliction  are  at 
hand. 

It  is  some  comfort  to  outraged  humanity  to  con- 
trast such  sentiments  and  the  expression  of  them  with 
those  of  a  far  different  kind.  They  proceed  from  a 
commonwealth  where  friendship  seems  to  be  with- 
drawn from  the  general  cause,  but  where  a  gallant 
bearing  has  always  shown  the  teaching  of  that  noble 
statesman,  the  pride  of  Kentucky  and  the  country, 
now  no  more.  As  North  and  South  united  to  acknow- 
ledge Henry  Clay,  as  more  than  a  mere  party  leader, 
his  friends  and  associates  who  survive  him  for  the 


22  SECESSION:  A   FOLLY   AND   A   CRIME. 

most  part  emulate  his  devotion  to  the  Union.  One 
of  these,  Garret  Davis,  upon  being  called  upon  for 
certain  information  gives  it  in  a  strain  of  earnest 
patriotism.  He  knows  his  duty  to  his  State  and  will 
not  fight  against  her,  but  he  knows  his  duty  to  the 
Union  and  will  continue  steadfast  in  his  allegiance. 
These  are  some  of  the  seemingly  difficult  purposes  to 
reconcile,  brought  about  everywhere,  and  especially 
in  the  Border  States,  of  proper  feeling  towards  a 
long-cherished,  local  home,  with  the  all-controlling 
influence  of  the  great  and  glorious  republic,  which 
has  sheltered  the  whole  nation  and  imparted  an  equal 
portion  of  renown  to  every  commonwealth.  Garret 
Davis  is  one  of  those  estimable  men  who  knows  his 
duty  and  dares  maintain  it.  Few  are  as  able  and 
none  more  willing  to  serve  their  country  faithfully. 

Now,  what  have  the  United  States  done  to  call  out 
Southern  hostility  and  hatred  1  Nothing  before  the 
outbreak  of  rage,  for  nothing  that  was  definite  against 
them  has  been  seriously  alleged.  Since  the  opening 
of  rebellion  they  have  at  first  faintly  hoped,  and  more 
recently  manfully  endeavored  to  retain  in  a  certain 
latitude  the  little  that  the  fury  of  secession  was 
unable  to  take  from  them.  On  the  29th  of  October 
rebellion  was  yet  immature  in  action,  restricted  in 
position,  and  scarcely  developed  in  general  design. 
On  that  day  our  gallant  commander  wrote  to  Mr. 
Buchanan,  officially  recommending  that  the  garrison 
of  Fort  Sumter  should  be  strengthened.  Had  this 


SECESSION":   A   FOLLY  AND   A   CRIME.  23 

step  been  taken  it  would  probably  have  prevented 
the  first  and  the  costing  step  against  the  country. 
Then  all  the  blood  that  has  been  shed  and  the 
property  that  has  been  destroyed  might  happily 
have  been  saved.  The  firmness  and  capacity  of  the 
General,  met  no  corresponding  firmness  or  capacity 
in  the  Executive.  An  imbecility  beyond  example 
hugged  itself  up  in  moth-consuming  sloth.  He 
differed  from  the  General  in  every  thing.  The  little 
nucleus  of  a  garrison  was  left  to  its  own  unsupported 
valor ;  and  it  fell  with  honor,  and  without  loss  of  life. 
May  we  not  trust  that  a  special  Providence  befriended 
the  just  cause,  when  a  protracted  attack  from  ten 
thousand  enemies,  directed  by  sufficient  experience, 
left  all  that  was  human  in  the  Fort  essentially  un- 
harmed 1  The  loss  of  the  assailants  has  been  care 
fully  concealed. 

Rebellion  needed  no  signal  for  active  war.  It  had 
long  been  meditated,  and  was  already,  in  many 
respects,  prepared.  Loyalty  was  slow  to  believe 
the  sad  reality.  The  chief  magistracy  was  still 
inadequately  filled.  Time  and  the  election  brought 
about  a  change.  The  standard  was  reared  in  every 
quarter,  and  in  every  quarter  the  people  rallied  to  its 
support.  Future  events  are  necessarily  a  mystery. 
But  if  recent  ones  have  made  their  due  impression, 
and  experience  has  brought  wisdom  in  its  train,  a 
correction  «f  errors  so  palpable  and  so  pernicious  as 
they  have  proved  to  be,  can  scarcely  escape  the  most 


24:  SECESSION  :  A   FOLLY   AND  A   CRIME. 

negligent  or  unwise,  or  avoid  correction  in  council  and 
in  the  field. 

Up  to  the  present  moment,  but  one  alleged  griev- 
ance has  been  heard  from  the  rebellious  crew.     The 
government  would  not  listen  to  their  appeal!    Enough 
has  been  made  known  of  the  character  of  that  in- 
tended appeal.     It  is  understood  to  have  been  a  mere 
naked  demand   of  recognition,  and   nothing   more ! 
And  this  would  not  be  received !     There  was  a  time, 
no  doubt,  when  such  a  call  would  have  been  atten- 
tively heard.     That  was  before  it  was  mixed  with 
other   ingredients,  now   made   inseparable   from   its 
nature,  and   aggravating  its  enormity.     Before  vio- 
lence had  been  resorted  to,  and  property  seized,  a 
becoming    proposal    from    a    proper    source    might 
have    been   listened  to,  even   without   absolute   dis- 
respect.    Such  a  source,  indeed,  it  might  not  have 
been  easy  to.  find.     If  we  are   rightly  informed,  a 
small  minority  only  of  the  people  in  the  whole  has 
in  any  way  given  consent  or  expressed  concurrence. 
The  masses  in  almost  all  of  the  seceding  States  are 
believed  to  be  unrepresented  by  their  blood-thirsty 
rulers.     If  fully  authorized  by  prince  and  people  too, 
what  was  the  basis  of  their  proposal?     It  contained 
no   compromise.      It   suggested   no   equivalent.      It 
offered  nothing  in  return.     With  hands  full  of  ill- 
gotten  gains,  nothing  seems  to  have  been  thought 
of  restoration  of  what  was  taken,  much  less  of  atone- 
ment for  the  wrong.     No   denial  of  the  fact.     No 


SECESSION:  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME.  25 

extenuation  of  the  iniquity.  Not  even  an  offer  to 
submit  to  a  third  party  either  the  question  of  their 
recognition  or  their  liability  to  give  up  their  prey. 
Why  not  make  an  offer  which  could  have  been 
listened  to  with  some  little  self-respect,  or  at  least 
not  in  a  shape  proudly  censorious  and  less  traitorously 
assuming  and  unfair1?  Some  equivalent  was  surely 
due ;  something  to  give  as  well  as  take.  But  none 
appeared.  The  suppliant  and  the  tyrant  were  one. 

There  may  possibly  have  been  a  transparent  veil 
thrown  over  the  belief  that  the  desire  of  the  only 
valuable  production  of  ,the  South  in  adequate  supply 
might  reconcile  any  indignity.  The  North  knows 
its  interest,  but  its  knows  its  dignity  and  honor  too. 
Cotton  may  perish,  and  its  convenience  be  forgotten, 
rather  than  the  North  should  forget  what  it  owes  to  v 
itself  and  to  the  Union.  Sackcloth  and  ashes  would  / 
be  better,  if  worn  with  the  pride  of  patriotism. 
Sympathy  with  our  erring  brethren  is  perfectly  con- 
sistent with  a  determination  to  preserve,  if  possible, 
untarnished  devotion  to  the  country.  Our  hearts 
and  arms  may  be  open  to  receive  them,  when  they 
are  true  to  us  and  to  themselves.  Honorable  peace 
is  desired.  But  it  cannot  be  made  at  the  sacrifice  of 
principle,  or  of  the  best  interests  of  a  large  majority  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States. 

It  did  not  need  the  inflammatory  language  of  seces- 
sion speeches,  and  proclamations,  to  kindle  the  fiercest 
fires  of  civil  war.  It  is  in  itself  a  fearful  evil.  Friends 


26  SECESSION  :  A  FOLLY  AND  A  CKIME. 

and  brothers,  fathers  and  children  are  arrayed  in  un- 
natural conflict  with  each  other.  Ordinary  war  is 
peace  compared  with  it.  No  caution  can  prevent,  no 
courage  defeat  its  effects.  Distance  is  no  protection, 
and  watchfulness  is  no  guardian.  A  fatal  blow  may 
be  aimed  by  an  unsuspected  neighbor,  and  the  long 
arm  of  treacherous  friendship  may,  from  remote 
places,  reach  the  kindred  heart.  It  was  reserved  for 
our  prosperous  country,  and  our  happy  and  enlight- 
ened age,  to  invite  and  encourage  practices  that  would 
have  been  a  shame  to  the  darkest  period  of  the  most 
uninstructed  people.  Yet  the  blame  is  not  with  us. 

It  was  a  striking  fact,  that  in  Fort  Sumter, 
attacked  as  it  was  by  an  overwhelming  force,  and 
assailed  by  every  description  of  arms,  not  one  of  the 
heroic  band  of  defenders  suffered.  Buildings  were 
burned,  fortifications  were  destroyed,  every  kind  of 
injury  was  done  to  material  defence,  but  officers  and 
men  were  unharmed.  Is  it  presumption  to  suppose 
that  the  first  efforts  of  a  just  cause  received  the 
smiles  of  Heaven  1  The  loss  sustained  on  the  other 
side  is  still  a  mystery,  and  the  truth  will  long  be 
concealed.  If,  in  the  progress  of  events,  when  upon 
each  succeeding  occasion,  manly  valor  has  been  dis- 
played, death  has  been  sustained  from  ill-advised 
exposure  by  inexperienced  command ;  there,  too,  the 
caution  which  Providence  might  have  suggested,  was 
neglected,  and  suffering  was  the  consequence.  It 
was  one  of  the  wise  maxims  of  the  best  of  Americans 


SECESSION:   A  FOLLY  AND  A  CRIME.  27 

and  of  men,  that  a  due  preparation  for  war,  was  the 
best  security  of  peace.    But  the  wisdom  that  prompted 
the  assertion,  never  forgot  the  necessity  of  caution 
and  foresight  in  advancing  into  places  of  danger,  or 
neglected  the  provision  of  scouts  and  outposts  as  the 
elementary  instruction  of  military  theory  and  prac- 
tice.    Unnecessary  exposure   has   cost    the    country 
dearly  already,  in  the  lives  of  some  of  its  cherished 
sons.     Among  those  who   have    suffered,  and  those 
who  are  in  full  pursuit  of  the  Nation's  honor  and 
their  own,  it  must  be  our  just  pride  that  some  of  our 
immediate  fellow-citizens  have   been   especially  dis- 
tinguished.    When  Greble,  in  the    midst   of  perils 
was  advised  to  stoop  down  and  avoid  the  bullets  that 
whistled  around  him,  he  knew  too  well  the  value  of 
example,  to  sacrifice  it  for  life,  and  he  fell  gloriously 
in  displaying  the  one,  and  in  heroic  disregard  of  the 
other.     He  verified  a  remark  that  was  once  applied 
by  Commodore  Decatur  to  Captain  Lawrence,  that 
there  was  no  more  dodge  in  him  than  in  the  mainmast. 
He  suited  the  action  to  the  word,  and  bequeathed  at 
once  an  example  and  a  watchword  to  his  countrymen. 
We    shall   not   arrogate   anything    to    ourselves,   in 
claiming  this  early  victim  of  dauntless  bearing  in  the 
civil  war,  as  a  Philadelphian.     A  happy  relief  from 
fatal  consequences,  through  bodily  injury  and  bold 
exposure,  has  distinguished  another  of  our  immediate 
brethren.     Kelley  lives  to  gain  new  laurels  and  to 
embellish  by  future  deeds  a  reputation  earned  with 

302569 


28  SECESSION  :   A   FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME. 

blood.  In  still  more  elevated  rank  than  those,  is  a 
native  of  our  city,  whose  daily  exhibitions  of  military 
science,  and  eloquent  instruction,  do  credit  to  his 
birth  place,  and  secure  to  him  the  respect  and  con- 
fidence of  the  country.  The  recent  proclamation  of 
General  McClellan  is  a  model  of  propriety.  Its 
language  and  sentiments  are  equally  worthy  of  praise. 
With  the  firmness  of  the  soldier,  it  breathes  a  spirit 
of  gentleness  and  mercy  where  occasion  may  become 
them.  It  will  live  in  brilliant  contrast  with  a  pro- 
duction from  the  rebel  camp  full  of  Billingsgate 
invective.  If  "  wives  and  daughters"  had  been  in- 
sulted, proclaim  the  instances  to  a  proper  authority, 
and  no  Northern  man,  however  accused,  will  escape 
condign  punishment.  Women  of  rebel  association, 
it  is  said,  have  proffered  hospitality  with  smiles  to 
unsuspecting  officers,  and  then  treacherously  betrayed 
them.  Of  this,  the  testimony  is,  it  would  seem, 
unquestionable.  They  have,  perhaps,  deceived  their 
own  officers  into  an  assertion  without  foundation,  as 
they  did  strangers  into  a  confidence  which  was  mis- 
placed. Generals  Patterson  and  Cadwalader,  also 
our  gallant  townsmen,  have  been  tried  in  battle  and 
in  peace. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  with  conscious  pride, 
that  whatever  may  have  been  the  kind  of  effort  in 
which  the  Federal  soldiers  have  thus  far  been  en- 
gaged, whether  happily  suggested  or  unwisely  led, 
the  conduct  of  the  inexperienced  troops  has  been 


SECESSION  :  A   FOLLY  AND  A   CRIME.  29 

uniformly  brave.  Every  one  has  proved  himself 
manly  and  heroic.  Whether  to  die  or  to  succeed, 
his  conduct  has  been  a  glorious  example.  The 
material  of  the  army  from  almost  every  quarter  has 
been  sharply  tried,  although  no  great  battle  has  been 
fought.  In  any  condition  or  exposure  that  may 
occur,  the  country  is  now  assured  that  the  character 
already  stamped  upon  its  gallant  sons,  will  be  a  cer- 
tain passport  to  glorious  victory  or  honorable  death. 


Philadelphia,  July  4/^,  1861. 


«TO\ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


NOV  2  S 


REC-0  ID  W^ 

1I\N    2 1985 
APR  9    1985 


LDfURD 


RETTD  URL  CIRC 


OCT  Z  1 


?00f 


.vlOSANI 

1 


3  1158  00969  1956 


